Architects Journal
Jay Merrick
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Norman's artful debut
4-May-2013
When the world’s most successful architect exhibits his emotional touchstones, order prevails, reports Jay Merrick -
A great Gatsby: Saïd Business School by Dixon Jones
29-Mar-2013
With its Phase 2 West Wing of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, Dixon Jones has created a distinctive new oasis for young thrusters, writes Jay Merrick. Photography by Paul Riddle -
A statement of intent
11-Mar-2013
Henley Halebrown Rorrison’s Akerman Health Centre is socially considerate architecture grounded in the assumption that it can make a difference, writes Jay Merrick. Photography by Ioana Marinescu -
What would The Pooters think?
4-Mar-2013
Artist Blue Firth’s Same Old, Same Old installation raises teasing questions about perceptions of architecture in an accidentally formed space at the Royal Academy, writes Jay Merrick -
Down deep in Deptford: Tanners Hill by Dow Jones
15-Feb-2013
Dow Jones Architects’ renovation and reconfiguration of No 25 Tanners Hill into a house and gallery has involved carefully peeling back the layers of Deptford’s history. By Jay Merrick. Photography by David Grandorge -
Fragments and dreams: Downley House by Birds Portchmouth Russum
13-Feb-2013
A collage of fragmented forms follows its own dream logic in Birds Portchmouth Russum’s Hampshire country house, writes Jay Merrick. Photography by Nick Kane -
Ugly good, Traumkitsch bad
7-Jan-2013
What are the rules of attraction? Stephen Bayley’s Ugly: The Aesthetics of Everything, prompts Jay Merrick to consider what makes us see beauty in the beast -
Stirling Prize 2012: New Court OMA with Allies and Morrison
10-Oct-2012
‘New Court demonstrates civility in a part of London hugger-mugger with mute, corporate architectural spoor,’ reflects Jay Merrick -
The wax and the fire
24-Sep-2012
At its best, the Royal Academy’s autumn show, Bronze, has an alchemy that conjures the luminous and sublime out of dense surfaces and forms -
'An open house is like an open hand'
12-Sep-2012
Open House admits us into a public exchange of reactions to and opinions about buildings -
In praise of the quizzical line
28-Jun-2012
Jay Merrick on drawing -
'Jan just liked to draw'
24-May-2012
Jan Kaplicky’s last building, the Ferrari Museum in Modena, marks the end of good old fashioned Futurism, writes Jay Merrick -
Alsop at The Public
26-Apr-2012
Will Alsop’s collaborative installation dominates The Public’s new exhibition and leaves little space for vivacity or wit, writes Jay Merrick -
Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects
29-Sep-2011
The building’s segments resemble supersized, tensely interlocked graffiti script, spray-canned in silver, grey and black, says Jay Merrick -
The Perfect Architect
7-Jul-2011
Architects are characterised as little more than gormless buffoons in Jayne Joso’s new novel, finds Jay Merrick -
Rick Leplastrier and Peter Stutchbury: Outback architecture
9-Jun-2011
Australian architects Rick Leplastrier and Peter Stutchbury talk to Jay Merrick about the power of landscape, elemental design and the outdoor way of life -
Cronocaos: Heritage and heresy
7-Apr-2011
Change and chaos are natural parts of the human psyche. How can we reconcile this with the desire to preserve, asks Jay Merrick -
One Hyde Park, London, by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
17-Mar-2011
Despite its dramatic size, RSH+P’s scheme plays some surprising tricks of scale, writes Jay Merrick. Photography by Paul Raftery -
The Loos canon: Adolf Loos at the RIBA
3-Feb-2011
Ahead of an RIBA exhibition on Adolf Loos, Jay Merrick explores the peculiarities of the man behind the ‘Raumplan’ and the essay ‘Ornament and Crime’ -
Michael Faraday Community School, Aylesbury Estate, Southwark, by Alsop Sparch
25-Nov-2010
The Michael Faraday Community School in south London is an important test of both urban history and the social future, and of the potential physical and symbolic values of contemporary modernist architecture in what is Europe’s largest housing development says Jay Merrick. Photography by Morley Von Sternberg -
Sandal Magna Community Primary School, Wakefield, by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects
7-Oct-2010
Mimicking the local terraced streetscape, Sarah Wigglesworth’s sustainable school buildings in Wakefield teach a lesson in the great outdoors -
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology by Rick Mather Architects
30-Sep-2010
[STIRLING SHORTLIST IN DETAIL]: Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum is restored and revamped by Rick Mather Architects -
Abbey Green, Barking, by Lynch Architects
3-Jun-2010
[BUILDING STUDY + DRAWINGS] Medieval ruins and the foundations of long-demolished Victorian warehouses are the starting points for Lynch Architects’ romantic Abbey Green masterplan, writes Jay Merrick -
Stratford Campus, University of East London, by Richard Murphy Architects
3-Jun-2010
[BUILDING STUDY + PLANS + DATA] It’s the masterplan that makes these academic buildings shine, says Jay Merrick -
Jay Merrick: Dulwich Picture Gallery Mausoleum
10-Sep-2009
Critic Jay Merrick selects the Mausoleum at the Dulwich Picture Gallery -
Royal College of Art - Department of Architecture
15-Jul-2009
Today’s students at the RCA have been bitten by an apocalyptic, Blakean muse -
Sod the ethics, celebrate the genius - Le Corbusier Debate at the Barbican
5-May-2009
The Barbican’s Le Corbusier debate was less about ethics than architecture’s genius virus, says Jay Merrick -
New Court, Clare College, by van Heyningen and Haward Architects
23-Apr-2009
An L-shaped building completes a Cambridge masterplan begun by Giles Gilbert Scott in the early 20th century, writes Jay Merrick. Photography by Will Pryce -
BOOK
5-Jul-2007
REVIEW -
THE NEW CURRICULUM'S CATCHPHRASE - 'EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED' - IS CARRIED THROUGH WITH BEBOP BRIO
27-Jul-2006
BUILDING STUDY -
THIS IS NOT BLING, NOR EVEN DUCHY ORIGINAL
6-Jul-2006
BUILDING STUDY
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